How do you calculate specific heat without the final temp to calculate ΔT?
If you have a 100 g piece of iron at 100°C and place it into 500g of water at 20 °C will the temperature be above, below, or equal to 50°C?
If you have a 100 g piece of iron at 100°C and place it into 500g of water at 20 °C will the temperature be above, below, or equal to 50°C?
1 Answer
You find it in your textbook...
#c_("Fe") = "0.450 J/g"^@ "C"#
#c_w = "4.184 J/g"^@ "C"#
You don't need the final temperature explicitly. Suppose both masses were
But iron has a lower specific heat capacity than water does, so it will not withstand as much heat as water would before changing temperature.
Thus, for the same masses of
If we further have
Thus,
If you want to actually calculate it... invoke conservation of energy:
#q_"Fe" + q_w = 0#
#q_"Fe" = -q_w#
Recall that
#m_"Fe"c_"Fe"DeltaT_"Fe" = -m_wc_wDeltaT_w#
#m_"Fe"c_"Fe"(T_f - T_"Fe") = -m_wc_w(T_f - T_w)#
Solve for the final temperature.
#m_"Fe"c_"Fe"T_f - m_"Fe"c_"Fe"T_"Fe" = -m_wc_wT_f + m_wc_wT_w#
#m_wc_wT_f + m_"Fe"c_"Fe"T_f = m_wc_wT_w + m_"Fe"c_"Fe"T_"Fe"#
The final temperature is then:
#color(blue)(T_f) = (m_wc_wT_w + m_"Fe"c_"Fe"T_"Fe")/(m_wc_w + m_"Fe"c_"Fe")#
#= ("500 g" cdot "4.184 J/g"^@ "C" cdot 20^@ "C" + "100 g" cdot "0.450 J/g"^@ "C" cdot 100^@ "C")/("500 g" cdot "4.184 J/g"^@ "C" + "100 g" cdot "0.450 J/g"^@ "C")#
#= color(blue)(21.7^@ "C")#